Decoding Decoupled, & a li’l more

Although he can look the part actor R Madhavan Indiarsquos No 1 man next doormdashlsquopaavamrsquo engineering type desi parents will like their daughters married off tomdashis not sloppy enough to be Larry David from Curb Your EnthusiasmIn the Netflix series Decoupled directed by Hardik Mehta Madhavan plays a role similar to selfreferential Seinfeld creator Davidmdasha married fulltime writer both full of himself and profound plus pointless observations on the mundane sounding inevitably lsquojudgyrsquojerkinappropriate to others David I suppose got it from Woody AllenMehta pulled off the same acting beats better in his debut feature Kamyaab set in the Bombay film industrymdashbaapactor Sanjay Mishra had much to do with itDecoupled seems slightly staccato if not rehearsedmdasheven conversationally fake in English sometimes Which is true for many performers otherwise experienced in Hindi before a camera As with those here Madhavan is a Tamil actor too It seldom flows Or maybe the scenes donrsquotThis isnrsquot to suggest Decoupled set in Gurgaonrsquos gated high risesmdashhonouring ldquothe great Indian tradition of keeping one gate closedrdquomdashshould be primarily in any language but English Itrsquos writtencreated by Manu Joseph This is his TVOTT debutManu Joseph PicInstagramTechnically writingrsquos writing And while Joseph has written three acclaimed books a film Love Khichdi that I havenrsquot seen and surely lots of emails WhatsApp textsmdashhersquos top of mind among many English readers as a weekly zeitgeist columnist To my mind the finest Indian eclectic columnist I guess because he repeatedly passes tests of risky opinion That is to hold it against your ownmdashmeaning the OpEd consensus on GM foods to Aadhaarrelated privacy issues farm laws to Facebookrsquos free Internet A cynic imagining worse about those acceptably goodmdashconsequently breaking ranks with litfest holy coteries on occasion In this case also jazz loving gatekeepers of what qualifies as gentrified art and sufficiently bleedingheart journalismThe retaliation from this lot to directly being called out from among near ones is sharper still Only marginally less than trolls demanding economic ruin of those whose views they wish to shut downWell you never have to agree with Joseph Only the dumb read everything merely to nod and concur Or revolt He passes the more essential writing testmdashof being interesting almost always As Madhavanrsquos character Arya puts it in the series ldquoWriters are interesting because they donrsquot know much about any subject to be boringrdquoIn random conversation he picks up one of Josephrsquos pet peeves from printmdashRahul Dravid Reflecting the Indian middleclassrsquos love for the cricketer as a projection of their own mediocrity that values persistence over excellence or perhaps art over entertainmentKinda staying more on the subject he mocks the excessive selfrighteousness of farmers psychologists gurus activists economists the ldquoNDTV crowdrdquo and the ldquotrauma industryrdquo as it weremdashall of it through stray lines and caricaturing scenesYou could misconstrue Arya in the mirror image of Joseph as a muckraker or misanthrope Latter is unfair No misanthrope will ever care to writeDecoupled is centrally about an excouplemdashthe attractive Surveen Chawla plays the wifemdashas likely best friends even flat mates A concept that will befuddle ancestors Theyrsquove sanctified this ldquocomplicated relationshiprdquo in Facebook speak as marriage forever Which relationship isnrsquot complicated outside of the Indian cricket team and its fansLet alone plot and thatrsquos for you to watch or not what follows better is a series of contentious conversation starters for a halting monologueldquoAnything that a man does for his lover is in one way or another paying for sexrdquo ldquoMarriage is a cage in a deep dark dangerous forestmdashsure you can escape the cage but can you surviverdquo ldquoThe human brain is programmed to remember trauma more than happinessmdashso most marriages might be happier than couples rememberhelliprdquoI guess viewers scrolling on Netflix might enter it better without excess baggageexpectationsmdashchewing gum for the brain Not overjudging it even as intellect having sufficient fun with something low on browambition cinematic and otherwiseThere are various ways to watch a show I just havenrsquot randomly caught anything lazing in bed counting an entire series as a sum total of column openers for observations as dialogue Standup comedy is a bit like that This is lsquostandup anthropologyrsquo as was Josephrsquos Facebook page once if I recall rightAs for Madhavanrsquos zerofilter character who shouldrsquove been named Manu and his thoroughly secondrate Larry Davidlike quirksmdashnot shaking hands with teenage boys for wherever theyrsquove been or hating on restaurant waiters who interrupt table conversationsWe all have better ones I guess Minersquos to judge a writer for what they drink Amitav Ghosh has never been the same to me since I saw him with red wine in an airline glass at the divebar Ghetto I remember Joseph holding pina colada over a night once Hersquos a much cooler writer than a drinker evidentlyMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper